Financing: How much did your house cost?

That’s true. For example, I already earn relatively well. But if I work more, I don’t immediately get more money. As soon as I took unpaid special leave (my employer basically offers this option), that would of course have to be offset.

With materials, it's like in many other areas that there is actually a lot of leeway. No one goes to a car dealership and pays the gross list price for a new car or to a kitchen studio and pays the price according to the list. It's the same game with floors, paint, wallpaper, electrical work, etc. We wanted to finally treat ourselves to a carpenter for the doors in our renovation. He wants 1,600€ for everything for 4 doors. I generally find that okay. My brother-in-law worked as a carpenter for a long time. Long story short: The brother-in-law came, measured, and ordered the doors according to the carpenter's offer. Material costs 482€. We'll install them together then. If I look at some balance sheets and profit statements from electricians, roofers, architects, etc., one can only conclude: They all make a killing off the end customer. I have an acquaintance (electrician) who bought himself a shabby Passat just to show up at customers with it. Privately, he drives something more in the 80k range ;)

Nobody goes to a car dealership and pays the gross list price for a new car, or to a kitchen studio and pays the price according to the list.

The room for negotiation varies. If you annoy your construction partners too much by negotiating, they will make up for it with every change order or time and material request. Quality arises not only from the material but also from the enjoyment of the construction site. Better to grant the construction partner a good profit here and there and receive above-average performance in return than to try to rip the other party off. You don’t only have costs, but you also receive value. Unlike with cars, there are significant execution deviations. It is harder for me to trust a craftsman who allows themselves to be talked down too readily. We told our craftsmen that we would not negotiate and in return expect excellent execution. If an offer was too high, we said we would have to find another solution with the architect. Some of these solutions were significantly cheaper and ultimately hardly different. We simply did not implement some things. After 1.5 years in the house, I can say that we received excellent quality, only with the electrical work were there delays here and there in the final stretch due to unforeseen personnel problems.

I generally agree with you. If I have someone do something, then a craftsman is certainly allowed to earn money from me. Many really put in a lot of effort for that. I only meant that even as a private person there is a lot of room for maneuver if you buy the materials from a specialized dealer. Our floor on the ground floor was listed at 68€ per sqm in the specialized trade. When asking what else might be possible, we were suddenly given a price of 42€ per sqm. That was over 2,300€ less that we paid for 90 sqm. The discount on the doors was similar. We also had fundamental things done like the roof, plastering the facade and windows, and I prefer to pay a bit more for proper work than too little.

Our ground floor flooring was listed at 68€ per sqm in the specialty store. When we asked what else could be done, we were suddenly quoted a price of 42€ per sqm.

Well, I've never seen one of my craftsmen offer me the "RRP" (with understandable things). Just as an example, the tile (material) was offered to us 40% below the listed price without any offer etc.